Maintaining with Packages

Typically, Mac OS X users want to use the latest hardware and software. However, maintaining them can be a challenge. If you are attempting to guarantee functionality for your users, keeping your images up-to-date can be time-consuming, and system administrators often have to limit frequent software or hardware upgrades. Make your users aware of the time it takes to update a set of ASR and NetBoot images every time a new CPU is introduced to the supported equipment. Furthermore, the ASR and NetBoot features themselves change as Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server are upgraded and as new processor types are released.

One solution is to use packages. Packages allow you to create interim updates in response to frequent changes to equipment without having to create new images immediately. Use a package to update a system with a new version of Mac OS X. Deploy packages with updates to hardware drives. Use ARD to make sure that all of your users receive the packaged updates and then keep track of which computers received the updates. This strategy allows you to keep your users up-to-date and still gives you time to test new hardware and software configurations before deploying them. PackageMaker is an application installed with the Apple Developer Tools that can create custom packages.